Harhaha is a farming village in Deoria, Uttar Pradesh situated between the rivers Rapti and Gurra. For this community, the past year has been marked by four flash floods and one severe drought. Approximately 50% of the crop was destroyed. As a result, villagers were forced to make tough choices and migrated to cities in search of livelihood.
Deoria has high instances of cholera, diarrhea, anemia and other water-borne diseases. Inadequate sanitation practices and lower consumption of fruits, vegetables and pulses may well be the culprits. Use of wood burning chulhlas (stoves) contributes indirectly to health issues by increasing instances of tuberculosis and poor eyesight in women. However, with abundant water and fertile soil after the floods, farmers could optimize their yields and correspondingly their incomes with proper training and availability of suitable seeds. These opportunities, if realized, have the potential to benefit the community.
With a PhD in Plant Pathology and 30 years research experience on development practices, Dr. Yashwant Singh (Yashwant Ji) founded Utthan in 2002 to revive the Deoria region’s health, agricultural base, and self-reliance through judicious use of technology and organization.
Since 2006, Utthan has built a network of 100+ farmers in 6 villages. Utthan’s two staff members coordinate with a designated community resource person in each village. Utthan trains these community resource persons to present on topics such as health, sanitation, and agricultural techniques. Utthan also introduces various initiatives such as the kitchen garden: Utthan’s community resource persons have engaged 30+ village families to grow vegetables around their houses and to add them to the family diet for better nutrition.
With respect to livelihoods, Utthan seeks to create an agriculture economy suited to the special needs of the area. Since floods are perennial, Utthan assists farmers in developing seeds that make crops ready to harvest before the flood. Village meetings are organized to discuss seed development and new agriculture techniques. Utthan has also initiated a program to train youth on agro-processing activities to increase productivity and explore alternative livelihoods.
Need for Project:
Farmers remain vulnerable to climatic changes, market conditions, and rising input costs. Utthan seeks farmers’ independence from market forces through indigenous seed production suited to flood conditions, use of organic fertilizers, and development of farm-independent activities that assist in the livelihood of farmers. Utthan has surveyed ten villages to start initiatives on farming and livelihood generation. At present, Utthan primarily focuses on the new seed development. Utthan also addresses soil degradation, organic farming, plant diseases, and agri-product processing.
Utthan wants to create farmers interest groups (FIGs) that seek, discuss, experiment and implement new farming techniques that ensure independence from market forces to optimize income. FIG members will be trained to engage in agro-processing to create livelihood options during non-farming seasons or other off-peak times.
As an August 2010 Indicorps Fellow, you will help create and support FIGs to reinforce the farmer collective’s strength in acquiring information, collective bargaining, learning new farming techniques, and setting up agro-processing units.
Initially, you should engage with the farmers to understand the economics of farming (crop patterns/cycles, input cost, labor costs, potential profit, insurance for failed crops, etc) and their off-peak livelihood options. You should draw upon the vast knowledge and strong relationships of the Utthan staff. To learn more, you should also visit farmers, attend local meetings, and partake in Utthan’s awareness programs and campaigns. This should help you form relationships and build trust with the farmers.
In due time, you should approach farmers to volunteer their time to create FIGs in the villages. While the agenda should be driven by the farmers’ needs, you can help plan farming experiments with the help of the Utthan team. You can collaborate with local agricultural universities. You may present the experiments at the FIG meetings and spark broader discussions about relevant issues. In parallel, you will explore farm-independent livelihood options such as ago-processing. You can introduce various options at the FIG and assess interest. You can identify government resources and private institutions that can assist with information, set-up, operations, and marketing. You should be ready to wear many hats and be tremendously persevering in order to make the FIGs and supplementary livelihood options come alive.
Documentation of best practices and learnings will be tremendously important to make your work sustainable.
Target Community:
Your target community will be farmers from the Harhaha region in Deoria. More than 80% of the farmers around the Harhaha region are marginal farmers. They can sustain themselves through farming and farm income for only four to eight months per year. Some men in the community supplement their incomes as laborers. Rice, wheat and sugarcane are the main crops of the region; of recent, farmers are also growing corn. Other than farming, village families usually have domestic animals such as cows and buffalos.
Objectives:
• To create farmers interest groups as a forum for dialogue and collective action
• To improve farming and other related livelihood opportunities
Challenges:
• Wearing many hats to provide the necessary enthusiasm and support for new initiatives
• Understanding the economics of farming and a more sacred connection to the land as a backdrop for FIG initiatives
Team-Based Model:
Each project is designed as a three-way partnership between you, Indicorps, and a partner organization. Each grassroots partner organization – in this case Utthan – will be hosting two to four Fellows. Consequently, the August 2010 Fellowship will have both an individual and a team component.
As a team of Indicorps Fellows, your focus is to empower the village community through information and technology. Team members will focus on different areas including the promotion of women and adolescent girl health and building a network for farmers to improve their livelihoods.
You will be provided accommodation in a village Harhaha with a family. Simple vegetarian food and clean drinking water will be provided. You will be expected to do your own laundry and assist with other household activities. Harhaha village does not have 24-hour electricity. Phone with international dialing will be available in the village; internet facilities are available at the Utthan office in nearby Akataha village. The nearest major town Gorakhpur is 60 km away from Harhaha. Buses run all day between Harhaha and Gorakhpur. For local transportation, you will travel by bus or tandem with staff on motorcycles.
The language spoken at Utthan is Hindi. For this project, a basic knowledge of Hindi is required. If you do not have basic knowledge of Hindi, you can still apply if you commit to learning the language before the start of your Fellowship year.
How do you navigate between financial and non-financial motivations when making important choices? How might you help others with different financial considerations do the same?
2.
You invited 34 local farmers to discuss the establishment of a farmers' group in their village; 23 of them said they would come to the meeting. However, on the morning of the meeting only three farmers attend. After the meeting you see many of the other farmers watching a cricket match on a television outside the local store, where they have been presumably hanging out all morning. What is your initial reaction, and what next steps would you take?
3.
This project will require you to absorb a large amount of new information and integrate it into formal presentations and informal conversations. How will you, as a novice, confidently and effectively discuss agricultural practices -- both age-old and modern, technical and social -- with lifelong farmers?
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